Natural convection of nanofluid flow in a porous medium in a right-angle trapezoidal enclosure: a Tiwari and Das’ nanofluid model

Abstract

The study uses Tiwari and Das’ nanofluid model to present a study on free convective flows in a right-angled trapezoidal cavity that is saturated with a porous bed and filled with Cu-water nanofluid material. This investigation aims to enhance the characteristics of hybrid fuel cells and energy depository devices by analysing the cavity's heat expansion and fluid flow properties. In trapezoidal enclosures, the inclined and right wall portions are maintained at different isothermal temperatures at all times. Finite difference-based stream function-vorticity numerical simulations are employed to carry out this analysis. The outcomes have been presented for isotherms, streamlines, and Nusselt numbers concerning nanoparticle volume fraction, Darcy number, and various Rayleigh numbers. It is found that the inverse relationship between the thermal Rayleigh number and the nanofluid’s volume has a significant impact on the average Nusselt number.

Keywords

• Trapezoidal enclosure
• natural convection
• Cu-water nanofluid
• permeable medium
• numerical technique